The Star Traders: The Star Traders Series Volume One

by Gary W. Feather

  As Erica clutched her groin, his boot struck her in the eye. She saw stars and then darkness came.

  CHAPTER SEVENTY-TWO

  Meditation.

  Erica awoke. She was shoved back into the prison room with her friends. She looked up at them.

  "Glad to see you guys again."

  "Goddess, Erica," Tilly said. "Can we have some more medicine for her?"

  "No,” the guard said. "Mr. Beaumont's orders. Shut up."

  Erica heard Tilly's groan and looked at her out of one eye.

  "Do I look as gross as I feel?" Erica forced a painful smile.

  "Yes, Erica," Keiko said. "They really gave you a beating."

  "What are you planning on doing, Mother?" Erica mumbled to herself as she rested her head in Mindy's lap. She was comforted by Mindy's gentle petting of Erica's hair.

  "Your mothers aren't here, Erica," Mindy said.

  "I know that. I was just thinking out loud." Erica glanced up at Mindy.

  "Sorry."

  "I just don't know what to do anymore," Erica said. "We're fucked. How can we get out of this?"

  "Shut up, Erica," Mindy said.

  "What?"

  "You're not doing yourself any good by whining like a child," Mindy whispered. "Now what is going on out there? You haven't told us a damn things since you joined us."

  "She's right," Keiko leaned in to whisper. "I would really like to know too."

  "I'm sorry." Erica glanced over to the guard. She whispered to them everything that had happened. Including about making contact with Piper.

  "Well that's better news than what we had before, Erica," Mindy whispered. "I don't see why you're so depressed. We have a chance to get out of here."

  "Your mother, Piper, is probably going to make a move," Keiko said. "We just have to be ready to make our own move when the time comes."

  "You're right." Erica sat up slowly. "We need to figure something out."

  "You feeling any better?" Tilly asked.

  "I hope so," Erica said.

  Maybe they are right. I just need to rethink things. Beaumont. Can I fight him again and win? Will it come down to that if we try to escape? Erica held up her bandaged hand. Tilly had put wrapping around her ribcage after Beaumont had stomped on her ribs. Erica also had her bad bandaged up. There was very little medicine left for her and none of them were pain-killers. Damn, it hurts! Erica looked at her good left hand and made a fist. An image of her fist busting Beaumont's nose made her smile. It was a cruel smile.

  "Every once in a while, the guard by the door is exchanged for another," Erica whispered to Keiko. "What if we attack at that moment? All of us at once."

  "Risky, but it might work," Keiko said. "Tell Mindy and Tilly. I'll tell Lynna."

  "Are you sure you're up to the task?" Tilly whispered back to Erica after she was told.

  "Yes," Erica replied. "I don't trust Beaumont. He's too greedy and egotistical. He wants more money and thinks he can actually get it. I'm sure Piper is going to act soon."

  "Okay," Tilly whispered. "I'm with you."

  Everyone was in agreement to attack when the guard left and a fresh guard replaced him. So they waited and watched.

  Erica found she could meditate and was able to relax her body. Below the navel was a mystical spot called the tandien. A place to focus your mind as you breathed in and out.

  "Come on. Meditate with me," Erica said to the others.

  Mindy, Tilly and Lynna looked nervous and she suspected they need it for what was to come. Keiko seemed a calm. But all four agreed to join Erica in a meditation session.

  "Focus on your tandien below the navel. Breathe in and count to seven," Erica said. "Breathe out and count to seven."

  Except for the breathing, there was silence.

  CHAPTER SEVENTY-THREE

  Fight back!

  There was a knock at the door. The guard opened the door.

  "Hi Jessica,” the guard said. "They seem to be meditating or some shit. It's been kind of quiet. Best of luck to you."

  "Thanks Randy," Jessica the guard said.

  "Now!" Erica yelled.

  The five of them attacked at once in a rush. The guards were taken by surprise and beaten down. Keiko had a gun in her hand as she followed Erica out of their prison. Erica saw only a single guard sitting at a table with cards in his shaking hands. He reached for the gun on the table. He aimed at them. Erica and Keiko shot him. His body spun from the impact of the two shots before he landed on the ground.

  "See if there's anything to contact Piper or Martha and Gwen," Erica said.

  "Maybe he's got a comm device or tablet on him." Lynna knelt by the dead guard.

  "Good idea," Mindy said. "I'll go check the unconscious guards we left back there."

  "I'll help," Tilly said.

  "What was that?" Keiko looked towards the door that led outside Beaumont’s apartment.

  Without another word Keiko, went out to check. Erica heard noises that sounded like a firefight. The door shut as she saw Keiko shooting at someone. Erica went to join her when someone kicked her gun out her hand. It was Oscar Beaumont.

  "Erica Williams." Beaumont rolled his shoulders and then cracked his knuckles. "It's time for you and me to finish the fight we started. I'm going to kill you this time."

  Beaumont flung out a couple of jabs to Erica's face and backed up. Erica side-kicked at his knee. She missed.

  They circled each other looking for an opening. They kicked and punched at one another without making any hits. Both were able to dodge or block. But the blocks made Erica's ribs sting. Erica was sure that a strong kick to either side of her ribs might put her down. My right hand is pretty much useless. Maybe I can get close to use my elbows.

  Beaumont tackled her and grabbed her broken fingers. Erica head-butted him. Blood spilled from his nose. She punched him in the solar plexus and he stumbled. Erica stood.

  She kicked at his head. He ducked and kicked her other leg out from under her. Beaumont stomped down on her head, but Erica had rolled out of the way. They faced each other again. From out of nowhere Beaumont roundhouse punched Erica in the ribs with his lead hand and a slap to the throat. Erica kicked him in the knees, causing him to stumble back.

  I can't breathe! I can't breathe!

  Beaumont returned to finish the job, but Erica did the unexpected. She dropped to a knee and slung up her broken hand into his groin. Beaumont doubled over. Erica pulled herself to her feet. She raised her good hand in a fist and brought it down on the back of his head. Beaumont collapsed. He didn't get up. Erica fell to her knees.

  "Erica!" she heard Tilly shout.

  "Ribs hurt..." Erica whispered. Her voice sound like sandpaper. "Can't...breathe well."

  "I found the medicine they were keeping from us," Tilly said.

  Erica felt a sting on her arm. Then Tilly gave her another shot of something. After a while, the pain went away and she could breathe again.

  "Erica! Are you okay?" Erica heard her mother Piper's voice.

  "Mom?" Piper face came into view.

  "I'm here we made it in," Piper said. "Everything is fine. We'll get you back to the Daughter to get you patched up now. You're safe."

  "Daughter?" Erica said. "Where's Guinevere?"

  CHAPTER SEVENTY-FOUR

  Incoming missiles!

  A couple of days later the Guinevere finally neared the Lorkiiz starship. During that time, the third shift had taken control of the Guinevere and then first shift replaced them. Finally, second shift crew was back running the Guinevere with Alberta in command.

  What the hell am I doing? Alberta wondered again as her Guinevere straight for the Lorkiiz starship. Guinevere is a trader starship not a warship. We don't have the warship hull that can take the punishment of battle. The whole thing is crazy.

  Alberta looked at her screens again.

  "Missiles armed and ready, captain," Tiffany Williams said at the weapons/tactical station. "I have several dummy missiles ready to go
as well to screw with their targeting computer."

  "Thanks Tiffany." Alberta looked over at the sensor station. "How much closer will we be in missile range, Fiona?"

  "Soon, Captain," Fiona Williams said. "I think they are coming at us with all the speed they can pull."

  "I can see their speed on my screen," Alberta said. "How soon should we fire, Tiffany?"

  "One hour and twelve minutes."

  "Noted." Alberta rubbed her forehead.

  "The sensor probes I sent out have shown the Lorkiiz starship has six launching tubes," Fiona said. "We only have four launching tubes."

  "We already knew we were outgunned." Alberta nodded. "But we need it confirmed."

  "We have plenty of counter missiles and our lasers might be able to stop their missiles," Tiffany said.

  "How many probes do we have out there?" Alberta said.

  "Twelve," Fiona said.

  "Could we use them to take out any of their missiles?" Alberta said.

  "Yes," Fiona said. "It'll make use almost blind or nearsighted without them."

  "Work with Tiffany to see if it could be done."

  "Okay."

  Alberta looked at her screens for several minutes as they time went by. "Launch missile, Tiffany!"

  "Missiles away, Captain." Tiffany said. "Second missile salvo will be ready in seven minutes."

  "Thanks, Tiffany," Alberta said. A military warship would be able to launch salvos in a minute or less, but seven minutes were pretty good for a civilian ship that didn't train that much for ship to ship combat."

  "Here they come!" Tiffany said. "They've launched six missiles."

  An hour later, Tiffany shouted, "Launching counter-missiles against their first salvo."

  Alberta watched the screen. It showed several small counter-missiles headed towards larger missiles that could be nukes or kinetics. The counter-missiles were able to take out five. A single missile continued towards them, but was burned by their lasers.

  "Nothing," Fiona said. "A kinetic missile."

  "We were lucky this time," Alberta said.

  Their four missiles had been taken out by the enemy's counter-missiles. It wasn't look good for them. Six more missiles were on their way and they had four missiles already on the way over. Alberta noticed Tiffany walking over to Fiona to check the senor chief's station and then she returned to her tactical station.

  "What are you two up to?" Alberta said. "Actually I hope you are up to something."

  "It's the probes, Captain," Tiffany said. "We might be able to surprise them with them."

  "Really?"

  "They have probes too," Fiona explained. "So we we're going to ram theirs with ours. Ours are moving into position. We need to do it at the same time or they will figure us out in time to send out more probes."

  "With their probes taken out, they might be blind for a few seconds," Tiffany said. "Enough time to get more missiles past their counter-missiles."

  "Almost ready," Fiona said. "Now!"

  Alberta looked at his screen as probes exploded and information was lost.

  "Launching four probes," Fiona said. "Six missiles approaching."

  "Counter-missiles ready to launch, Captain."

  "Launch, Tiffany."

  "Shit," Tiffany cursed. "Two missiles got past our counter-missiles."

  "Nuke!" Fiona announced. "One’s a nuke."

  Lasers sliced into one missile and the second one exploded. Gamma rays burned through space. They struck the electro-magnetic shields and ocean tank surrounding the Guinevere.

  Alberta held tightly to her chair arms as the Guinevere shook and lights went out and came back on. Then the light went out and back on.

  "We've got leaks of water and radiation, Captain," Agatha Gee at comm stations announced. "We have people sending repair robots and nanites to fix the damage."

  "Damn. Thanks Agatha." Alberta looked at her screens. How many deaths do we have? How bad is the damage to Guinevere? Nothing I'll be able to know, until later. Goddess help us!

  "We got two missiles past their counter-missiles!" Tiffany said.

  "How many were nukes?"

  "Four."

  "All?"

  "Yes, Captain," Tiffany said.

  "How many nukes do we have left?"

  "Zero."

  "Great." Alberta gazed at her screen showing their two missiles moving in. As they got nearer the enemy's lasers killed one, but the second got through and self-detonated. The missile explosion shot out gamma rays, which burned into the enemy's hull. "I hope that's going to be enough. Maybe we can negotiate with them now."

  "We don't have any more nukes."

  "Don't tell them that," Alberta said.

  "Captain, I have a message from the Lorkiiz starship captain. Sending it to your comm screen."

  "Thanks, Agatha." The face of a Lorkiiz appeared on the comm screen. A large lizard head, like the ones Alberta had seen when she was kidnapped by the strange aliens.

  "A good fight, Captain Alberta Williams," the Lorkiiz said. "We will leave now, but this isn't over."

  "I understand," Alberta replied. "We will be watching for you."

  "Trade is strange to us," Lorkiiz said. "Vengeance is not, and it can be done another day."

  The screen went blank. Alberta checked another screen that showed area of space around them and saw the Lorkiiz starship turning around. It would head out of the Collard System to get out the star's gravity well so it could make a jump to hyperspace.

  "We bluffed them?" Tiffany said.

  "Captain, I have message coming in from a man," Agatha said.

  "Let me guess," Fiona added. "It's from one of the spaceships headed our way."

  Alberta checked a screen and saw two local spaceships headed their way from behind. "Looks like some of the locals wanted some vengeance of their own for Shelly's destruction."

  "Oh shit!" Fiona said. "We have a new problem; several starships are about to jump out of hyperspace."

  No! Not more Lorkiiz!

  "Their jump out of hyperspace is successful," Fiona said.

  Alberta looked at her screens. Who could it be? What's going to happen now? We can only wait. How long will it be? Alberta struck her chair arm. No not again. I would rather die than be in the hands of those things again!

  "I've got a message coming in!" Agatha cried. "It's the Spirit! Captain Emily Zhou says Hi!"

  "The Spirit?"

  "I'm now getting recognition signals from the new starships. One is Spirit and another is the Victorian trader starship Cornwallis. We also have the USS Boston a Yin Confederation Navy Light Cruiser."

  CHAPTER SEVENTY-FIVE

  A family meal.

  Erica twirled the spaghetti noodles around her fork as her mother Alberta approach the table.

  "May I join you?" Alberta said.

  "Sure." Erica nodded. "How are things going, Mother?"

  Alberta set her tray of food and seated herself. "The Boston's marines are in complete control of the Lorkiiz starship now."

  Erica nodded with her mouth full. She already knew the USS Boston had forced the surrender of the Lorkiiz starship and sent over their marines.

  "Also you might want to know that Oscar Beaumont is behind bars along with a number of his men," Alberta said. "Including the Chief of Police, Ms. Chettum, who had been assisting Beaumont all along. By the way, another naval starship just jumped out of hyperspace. It's the heavy cruiser USS Atlanta and it brought with it alien contact specialists and diplomats from all around the Yin Confederation."

  "How are the repairs going?" Erica asked once she had swallowed.

  "They are coming along great. We'll be ready to go in no time," Alberta said. "We've got a number of angry customers since we have failed to deliver lots of goods on time. Emily and the Spirit have been kind enough to take our remaining cargo off our hands for now. That can help a little, but if any good comes out of this, we've made friends with the locals here at Collard. I think there might be a market we
could get into. Eventually, we could even make a profit after all. Goddess help us."

  "Mmmm." Erica chewed on her garlic bread. "So we get to keep the ship?"

  "Yes, Erica." Alberta put some butter on her English muffin. "We aren't that deep in the red that we'll lose everything. I was worried about that."

  "Will the Lorkiiz come after us again?" Erica said.

  "I've no idea," Alberta said. "It seems to have just been this one family that were after us. Maybe it's over…or not. I don't know, but for now I want to leave this miss up to the professionals. Let the military and government deal with the aliens."

  "Good idea." Erica smiled.

  SPACE ASSASSINS

  Gary W. Feather

  CHAPTER SEVENTY-SIX

  Dancing on Caroline

  After the rocketship Guinevere’s Daughter had set its fins on a cold landing pad in Caroline City's spaceport Erica Williams checked herself out in the mirror. Nine hours ago she had gotten her legs waxed and looked hot between the blue mini skirt and five-inch heels. Above the loose skirt was a blue blouse with white ruffles going around the neck and down the low cut v-neck that showed off her ample cleavage. Erica had thought of adding some glitter to her breasts, but decided against it.

  "I thought you were a nun?"

  "What?" Erica asked her cousin and roommate Tilly Zhou, a second shift nurse. "I'm not a nun anymore, Tilly."

  "Oh, sorry." Tilly giggled. "I just never thought to see you in something like that. Sexy babe."

  "Whatever." Erica rolled her eyes. "I got this whole outfit for a great price when we picked up my little sister and dropped Gwen off at the university. They’re designer Steele!"

  "What? How could you afford that?"

  "I told you I got a good deal."

  "You sure it's not a rip-off?" Tilly frowned. She walked over to look at the tags on the blouse and skirt.

  "No." Erica shook her brown hair that was now long enough to touch her broad shoulders. Almost as long as Tilly's black hair. Back at the Zen Buddhist monastery she had been bald, but let it grow after she returned to Guinevere. Right now, Erica and everyone else on Guinevere's second shift were on Daughter, which was short for Guinevere's Daughter. The Starship Guinevere was currently in another star system and being run by first shift and third shift.